Bearded Reedlings!

School is over (praise Jehovah) and I have a free day with nothing to do so I ebirded any and every potential lifer within an oystercard radius and decided on Rainham marsh RSPB reserve, where Bearded Reedlings have dwelt unseen by me for the past two years. How?

With my bike and all my gear loaded up I caught the 5:55am train to London, then got on another one and 90 minutes later I was there.

Britain's obsession with walls and fences even applies to birding locales. The boardwalk here is blocked off by prison-like security with tall fences, CCTV and rotary one-way gates so the only way to access it is through the VC which opens at 9:30. In the meantime, I rambled around looking at Linnets and Sedge Warblers (only my second sighting after one in Kenya years ago), and managed to flush up a Water Rail making the early rise worthwhile. Searches for Lesser Whitethroat and Grasshopper Warbler were unsuccessful, presumably because they're done singing/breeding.

Eurasian Reed Warbler

Sedge Warblers

At last they opened the boardwalk and I made my way to an area where a family of Reedlings has been seen. Four pre-pubescent Reedlings were visiting a feeding platform while a growing crowd admired. Later, a bearded daddy made a an appearance sporting a fine sheriff's beard and yellow bill that sparked like summer corn in the morning sun.

Immature male (note yellow bill)

Daddy

Immature female (note blackish bill)

The Penelope Cruz of wild cats

 ...is the Iberian Lynx, a sexier, latina version of a bobcat. I knew about the Iberian Lynx from reading one of the Cannon ads on the back of a Nat Geo when I was a kid. Never could I have anticipated searching for one!!!

We hadn't really planned to try for this rare and seldom-seen cat on this trip, but when you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you have to seize it, otherwise this blog would not have its name. 

Azure Magpie

I give myself credit for taking the initiative to row up the group to go for this crazy gamble. Due to our limited schedule and having committed to meeting my folks for a beach holiday, we had only 1 day available. We also had to sacrifice Moustached Warbler and Marbled Duck but decided that even a 5% chance at the Lynx would be favourable over those species, so we debated for a while and it was a unanimous decision to give it our best try with no regrets.

Steve receives credit for securing the number of a local guide through his friend 'Jaime Colebras', a crazy character apparently. The company is called Iberus Medio Ambiente, who do biological work as well as ecotourism on the side. Whether you see a Lynx or not we highly recommend them to enrich your visit. http://www.iberusmedioambiente.com/ecoturismo

The main guides were not available so they sent Francisco (same name as one of the owners, different guy) who is a local botanist, guide and all-round top notch guy about our age who picked us up in a Rav4 and drove us to all the best Lynx spots in Sierra de Andujar.

We arrived in the park at dawn and began our epic search, cruising around and sitting at stakeout spots for 14 hours. The first spot was the damn where we had a fleeting view of an European Otter swimming across the Jándula river! We had so much fun driving around but search took it's toll after a while:

This is not how you find a lynx!

Luckily Francisco had us covered: just as our energy and rage levels were depleted he pulled over, pulled out a pop-up table and some lawn chairs and we were soon enjoying partridge paté sandwiches with pickles and local cheese washed down with some whine made at his own family vineyard. Salud! His strategic deployment of the wine instantly revitalized our morale and we re-intensified our Lynx search.

Occelated Lizard

We were down to the last couple of hours with no lynx but spirits were still high as Francisco still had one trick up his sleeve. He took us to an estato privado (a private ranch with a conservation easement) where a lynx family was known to live and which he had seen recently. We cracked out the lawn chairs again and I have never scoped so intensely before with three of us glued to the swarovski, kowa and zeiss, respectively, for about  2 or 3 hours. Our non-stop surveillance of the hillside was only interrupted when I had to chase away a strange horse which was standing in front of a leashed dog. The horse was getting entertainment out of infuriating this dog who was going absolutely bonkers being leashed up to an abandoned truck with this stupid horse stubbornly standing in front of it sticking its dumb face right in front of the dog, mocking it. The horse having been chased away, the dog calmed down and we could resume maximum concentration. 

Maximum concentration

By this point, a silent competition ensued over who could spot it first, if anyone. Francisco said the female always emerges to hunt at exactly the same time each evening, at about 19:29 or something like that. It was 19:27. Holy smokes, this could be happening! I scoped at maximum intensity, gleaming every rock and patch of grass, roughly 400-500m from us. 19:28...I scoped the grassy area in front of the goat pen, where I though it mostly likely to emerge from. I withdrew for 3 seconds to rub my eye... "I SEE THE LYNX!" It was Francisco! Dammit! after 2+hours of hardcore scoping Francisco swoops in and gets the glory. A gorgeous female Iberian Lynx walks right across the exact spot I had been scoping. We could see her spooky yellow eyes and long ear tufts which make this feline one of a kind. She emerged at exactly the MINUTE Francisco predicted. Just as our excitement pinnacled, she walked into a bush and emerged with a wriggling rabbit kicking about, which she duly finished off and began ripping apart. Seconds later, she disappeared into some willows and emerged with a second rabbit! She seemed to cache this one somewhere in the bushes. Could the kittens have been in the bushes? We never found out, as she didn't come back out and the sun set on one of the most amazing days of our lives all thanks to Francisco and Iberus Medio Ambiente. 

The take home of the story is that on a trip, don't be afraid to dream big and even if it is a longshot or costs money, you should always go for it! Yes, there are many times we've gone after tough species in vain...think of Dom's 80 km hike for the Spotted Owl where he couldn't find one. But obviously, nothing ventured, nothing gained as my good old Opa says. This applies as much to birds or cats as it does to jobs, women, or anything in life for that matter. So, readers, I leave you with that piece of advice as your scheme your next adventure, whatever that may be! 

OMG...

Francisco says he gets THIS excited every time he sees a Lynx - and he has seen many! 

IBERIAN LYNX!!!

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

Trujillo and Monfrague

We left Donana with the notion that we could return for Marbled Duck on the final morning. For now, the crags of Monfrague and the plains of Trujillo promised once-in-a-lifetime epicness. We executed our assault on both superbly, finding a campground with the help of Ramata at base command. We checked in west of the plains and got as much sleep as we could before our pre-dawn start. Following the directions of Garcia and Patterson, we navigated the ranch roads in the dark. We flushed the occasional Little Owl and could hear the larks and corn buntings breaking into song, heralding the dawn of one of the most epic days of our lives.

Dawn on the plains of Trujillo

Just as light broke we scoped a female Great Bustard walking in a field at a great distance. Minutes later we located a couple of males, spectacular in the glory morning's light. The display is the most testosterone-jacked, gratuitous display of any male bird I've seen. They were so much bigger and their plumage and structure so solely devoted to their singular purpose of copulation that I feared for the safety of whatever female would choose him to mount her, so violent was the rage with which they flaunted their grotesque ornamentation. Despite their aggressive flamboyance, these birds are very wary of humans and we could probably not get close than a couple hundred meters away by my reckoning.

Female Great Bustard

The Great's smaller counterpart, the Little Bustard, proved elusive and with the morning spent, we tried our luck at Monfrague. The Castel de Monfrague sat atop a precipitous crag, villainously encircled by throngs of bloodthirsty vultures, with a spattering of other raptors ready to strip bare any carcass within a 100 mile radius. The cliffs were saturated with Griffons, plastered with decades-worth of their white feces.

Castillo de Monfrague

Steve with vulture colony on cliff behind him

We decided not to hike this trail

Black Vulture

Eurasian Griffon Vulture

Black Vulture

We proceeded to drive along the gully, where Steve learned a valuable lesson about Spanish driving. Apparently, it is not permitted to stop anywhere, even when observing wildlife in an area specifically devoted to said activity. Steve wanted to put this cultural norm to the test, stopping to look at this-or-that bird. Immediately, we had caused a 4-car jam. He slowly creeped along the side, waiving at them to pass him. However, this escalated the situation as the Spaniards proceeded to ride his ass until he decided to speed up. Steve held his ground, hoping that common sense would prevail. It was like we were watching Real Madrid at the Camp Nou, with Spaniards hysterically yelling foul language and honking. "Hijo de puta!" and "No puedes hacer eso aqui!" yelled one Spaniard as he ripped passed us. Well, lesson learned. In someone else's country, you need to follow the customs, however dumb they seem to us.

We were on the trail of Egyptian Vulture and Eagle-Owl. The Eagle-Owl nest site was vacant since word was that the female had died and the male wandered off. Talking with a French family, we heard an amazing story of a Lynx walking past the dad as he enjoyed a cold beer at his roadside camp at Sierra del Andujar. Shit, maybe we could see one! Our brains immediately started scheming on how we could pull this off and still see all the birds we wanted to see. As we got back into the car, the fellow called us back. We narrowly avoided missing a soaring Bonelli's Eagle a very rare raptor and high on our target list. Monfrague is the place to see them! Then it was onto the Egyptian Vulture, which was sitting on her nest just above the water. A pair of Spanish Imperial Eagles on a nest with simultaneous Blue Rock Thrush added final splendour to an epic day. We returned to the campground thoroughly knackered and passed out on the grass.

Dom kept disciplined ebird checklists for the whole trip

As night came, I was determined to get my view of a Eurasian Scops Owl, since we'd heard them the night before. To do this, I needed to leave the campground, which was all walled off, and wander into the neighboring pasture. I hopped the barbed wire and honed in on the source of their tooting calls, which was tricky as whenever I got closer, the sound would get more distant. They were outwitting me. Next, I tried approaching very slowly and did not activate my light until I was right bellow the tree. I heard the call, turned on my light and there it was just a few feet above, a perfect view. After basking in its glory for 5 minutes or so, I raised my camera for a pic but that was enough to scare it off into the night. For some reason, Dom was not phased at missing these amazing views of a life owl.

We were up the following morning to hit up the other side of Trujillo, just east of the town. It was a difficult choice on which area to pick but we decided on this spot because many tour groups choose to go here. It did not disappoint, as we saw many more Great Bustards and eventually, two Little Bustards which was a big relief for me! Although they were about 200m away so left good views to be desired, so we explored further.

Great Bustard lek

Little Owl habitat

By that time in the morning, the bustard show was over but birds abounded. As we were stopped, a bird with a long tail flew over the road...Great Spotted Cuckoo! We drove further in the direction it had gone and secured stunning views of a male and female. These majestic parasites had arrived, ready to infiltrate the nests of unsuspecting Magpies. Time spent beside a derelict farmhouse yielded Iberian Gray Shrike. Inspection of two White Stork nests revealed smart-looking Spanish Sparrows nesting inside.



Great Spotted Cuckoo

Iberian Gray Shrike

What a morning! With our siege on the local birdlife complete, we decided to turn out assault to the castle in the nearby town. We refreshed ourselves in the Plaza Major before climbing up the hill to the 12th century Castillo, imagining what life would be like under the 500 year Arab rule.



Castillo de Caceres

Doñana Wetland

Described as "Europe's best wetland," Doñana is an incredible vast expanse harbouring some of Europe's rarest species like the Spanish Imperial Eagle, Marbled Duck and Iberian Lynx. Thus it made perfect sense to fly to Sevilla (23 pounds!). I don't know if its relevant to the story but Steve got caught up in customs with an extra bag fiasco and made the plain by about 10 seconds before they shut the door behind him, the most epic plane catch I've seen. Our Morocco leg had been awesome, but this trip was only half over and little did we know we would see a creature so rare and beautiful it would have been beyond our wildest dreams a few months ago. Armed with our Garcia and Patterson guide we set out into the wetland admittedly quite ignorant about how to hit this immense wetland to uncover its hidden gems.

We devoured an immense Sea Bass washed down with sangrias which somehow turned into a bill of 88 Euros. Feeling shocked at how much money we had just blown on dinner, we figured out how we would make up the loss. Clandestine camping would cost zero euros and place us in the stone pine woodland for the dawn chorus. The following morning, we rid our bowels of the last of Moroccan Tagine. I had no regrets as I made the connection with a marinated beef and date cinnamon-spiced tagine which was one of the tastiest meals I've had and the intestinal consequences worth it, my ears detected a Tristram's-like song gurgling in the pines. A careful stalk revealed it to be a spankin' Dartford Warbler in full glory!

We did our first morning at La Rocina Visitors Centre hoping we could scoop up some intel. Straight away we bumped into some Spanish birders about our age who gave us the juice on Savi's Warblers in the marsh. They barely spoke English but Dom's Spanish skills were more than sufficient and mine somewhat better than useless. It was awesome to see so many Spanish birders in the field as we read that birding used to be almost non-existent in Spain but here were some energetic young folks who knew their stuff and a one of them a hottie on top of that. We mobilized toward the marismas and honed in on the skulky reed-dwelling warblers like flies on a turd. We crossed paths with two British geezers who dished out warbler ID nuggets left right and centre. We semi-followed them for a bit in order to leech off their skills but laid off a while so as not to disturb them with our obnoxiousness (our birding gets rowdy son!). We vehemently staked out singing Sedge Warbler which we eventually gave the victory, pressing on to nab sick views of Cetti's Warbler, Eurasian Reed Warbler and my fave, Savi's Warbler with its generous undertail coverts making its tail look like a ridiculous wedge. After I mistook female pochards for marbled ducks, I realized I needed to regain my birding skills to work in proportion to my amount of rage which, at this point, was high. A wander over to the British dudes secured me a brief view of Icterine Warbler, which would be the only of the trip. By then they were spotting Pied and Spotted Flycatchers so far off in the woods that it was getting a bit ridiculous and we moved on to some birds we could actually see.

The juice on Marbled and White-headed Duck was that the only place to be was the Jose Valverde visitors' Centre so that's where we headed.

Red-crested Pochard

Our red Volvo's low clearance made navigating the insane potholes rather nerve-racking, especially with Dom at the wheel. At our slow speed, however, it was impossible to miss the array of larks and others on the road and fences.

Calandra, Greater and Lesser Short-toed, Wood and Crested Larks were snatched up as were Corn Bunting, Lesser Kestrels and European Roller.

Woodlark

Corn Bunt

Greater Short-toed Larks

Crested Lark

European Roller

Red-rumped Swallow

While trying to photograph a Great Reed Warbler and simultaneously extracting a fly from my eye, Dom started calling out "Tim, Tim!" but since I was in pain with the fly I neglected to look over. Only after did Dom realized that what he had just seen fly over was a Ferruginous Duck. I still have never seen one to this day.

Great Reed Warbler

Eurasian Spoonbill

At last we got to the Jose Valverde visitors' centre and we were truly amazed by all the wading birds: flamingos, herons, ibises and spoonbills everywhere. The knowledgeable nature interpreter helped is ID a "bastard snake" we had almost captured earlier and sent us in the direction of 3 of our most desired species: Great Spotted Cuckoo, Marbled Duck and White-headed Duck. We missed the cuckoos by a few minutes (at the gate to the off-limits part of the reserve) but as consolation I picked out a soaring Spanish Imperial Eagle and we were amazed by all the flamingos doing their in-synch crazy breeding display. I thought "wow, even non-birders would enjoy this."

Greater Flamingo

Yes, they are doing it!

A huge kettle of raptors started up, mainly Eurasian Griffons with a Black Vulture and Red Kite joining the usual blacks. We stopped by the White-headed Duck spot delighted to find a couple of spanky males and a female drifting behind the reeds.

White-headed Duck (taken in Malaga)

We proceeded to our camp, which was along a very wild road east of Valverde where Lynx has been spotted before. We did not see one, but I heard Tawny Owls from our camp and decided to venture over the barbed wire with my headlamp and Steve's speaker and managed to secure a stunning view - a bird I'd really wanted to see on this trip! The exposure was way too low on the shot but I somehow modified it on picasa and it turned out pretty cool!

Tawny Owl